Friday Five: Never Again!

Deb brings today's RevGalBlogPals Friday Five:

NEVER AGAIN!!!

You may have read David Foster Wallace's essay "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" where he notes his lack of enthusiasm for going on a cruise. (That's putting it in a nutshell. It's hilarious. Do read it!) However, I think it (perhaps) is just a wee bit of a hyperbole. ;)

All this is the inspiration for this week's Friday Five! 

Perhaps you have tried something that everyone assured you was SO MUCH FUN!!! and you swore on a stack of Bibles that you would never ever be dragged to said activity ever again. Was it horseback riding? Rappelling? Ballet class when you were 7?

So share with us 5 Supposedly Fun Things You'll Never EVER Do Again. You may find some commiserating souls among us. A bonus if you share pictures. 
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The cover of that picture book exemplifies this attitude of being scared to try, but needing to. As I try to think back to times I tried something new and never wanted to do it again, I came up with:

1. Backpacking and camping trip: The ONE trip I took was when Chuck was in graduate school at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR. Our good friends Steve and Gayla took us up to the mountains on a backpacking and camping trip. The mosquitoes were so dense that we could not find refuge from them; I particularly remember trying to relieve myself in the middle of the night and having those little bugs buzzing and biting me! I never wanted to do that again!

I know many people like camping, but I grew up with a Marine dad who had to do that "at work" and didn't want to do it "for fun." Unfortunately, that colored my life as a parent, so we never took our kids out camping, though TX is pretty hot for those endeavors anyway. 

2. Waterskiing: I have only gone waterskiing once, when we moved from VA to OR before Chuck went to graduate school at OSU. We stopped off to see friends in Idaho, and they took us out on their boat. I never could stand up on the skis! But if we had had access to a boat and skis we might have continued to try. No boats in our lives. Chuck says that that was the second time he'd waterskiied and was the only time HE stood up. Maybe if I had had a second time, I could have stood up, too.

3. Some books: Usually I like to read almost any book but there have been a few that I definitely wondered why I'd even read them. One very popular book that I disliked and swore I'd never read such books again was Room. I still look at it with distaste, probably because of the long-term abuse. 

4. Summer church camp: I only went to the First United Methodist Church Camp once as a sponsor (I was one of the cooks). I remember I asked my two oldest kids if it was okay for me to come. Young AE also went just that one time, and she had told me I could come, but then the first night, she asked me when I was going home! She'd thought I would go home each night, which I did not do. Both of us decided we would never go back.

I like my comforts and didn't like sleeping in a dorm bunkbed with kids coming in and banging pots and pans in the middle of the night. I also need a lot more sleep than I got there. And probably because I am an introvert, I needed more "alone" time.

5. Some meetings: I am not a good meeting person, especially when they go on and on. I don't like people blathering. Somehow I like spiritual formation and book club meetings, but planning and business meetings are not for me (unless they are short and to the point). I've come away saying I'll never ever be on that committee!